Ofcom begins mobile broadband study
Ofcom wants to know just how broad mobile broadband is, and has commissioned a four-month study of the subject with a full report expected to go public next January. The UK regulator has appointed Cardiff-based Epitiro to carry out a study of the UK's mobile operators, logging average connection speeds and latency on 3G networks …
It's crap. Always was, always will be.
Fine for surfing (at a pinch), good for email on the go. Anything else - forget it.
Mine is perfectly capable of streaming live TV from tvcatchup.com, so your survey certainly doesn't reflect my experiences.
Most network operators have various staff driving around do their normal duties with test sets in their trunks that auto-dial calls on everyone's networks so they can assess coverage.
Why can't Ofcom start with this data? Dam sight cheaper than having a paid outfit cover the same ground. They can cover the less frequented areas.
The Mobile Broadband round my neck of the woods is actually quicker than the wired variety, and I'd rather they not let that be known. Mind you I do have friends on a farm with a 3G dongle and a strategically aimed satellite dish, and that's improved matters no end for them.
Still wouldn't try and download too much it just g-e-t-s s--l--o--w--e--r a---n---d ...........
I'm 10 months into a 12Gb/12Month dongle from Three, and have finally decided I'm not getting another one.
Occasional reduced speed I can cope with, but not the continual tendency to drop out completely for usually a couple of minutes at a time but sometimes a lot longer, no matter how "strong" the dongle is reporting the signal to be.
It worked fine for 6 months, but now its trash and at times completely unusable even with a full five bars of signal showing.
Clearly, its not the "last mile" that's having problems, they've just sold too many dongles leaving grossly inadequate capacity in the "wired" part of the network beyond the local mast.
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